The Liberal State and Its Mental
Health Power

April 25-26, 2003

What: This 2-day conference will bring together mental health
professionals, community leaders, bureaucrats, policymakers, academics
and members of the legal profession to explore the mental health power
under liberal governance.

When: All day Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, 2003.

Where: Location: Lubar Commons, UW Law School room 7200.

Who: Open to students, faculty, attorneys, psychologists and the
social services community.

Fees: The conference sessions are free and open to all except
for the reception, closing banquet, and final panel session on Saturday
evening at The University Club, which is $35 for anyone not participating
on a panel. Advance registration will be required for Saturday evening
attendance; interested parties should register with Pam Hollenhorst at
pshollen@wisc.edu. Please send
a check for $35 made out to WLAA and mailed to Institute for Legal Studies,
UW Law School, 975 Bascom Mall, Madison WI 53706-1399.

Registration: To register, send an email message with your name,
contact information, and institutional affiliation to Pam Hollenhorst
at pshollen@facstaff.wisc.edu

Sponsored by: The Project for Law and the Humanities, the Institute
for Legal Studies, the Remington Center, the University of Wisconsin Law
School, the Mendota Mental Health Institute, and the State Bar of Wisconsin,
with support from the Evjue Foundation.

Overview: The mental health power includes both public and private
issues of policy and jurisprudence, such as civil commitment, treatment
of the sexual psychopath, the provision of health therapy, including insurance.
The conference will also address the use of mental health power in education
systems, including counseling and interaction with the police system.
Each of these areas has contemporary controversy and significance -- policy
is being rewritten for the treatment of sexual psychopaths as well as
the provision of therapeutic services and the role of pharmaceutical industry.

The purpose of the conference is to assemble a comprehensive description
of what is happening under the sign of mental health power in Wisconsin
as a basis for generalizing present and future policy. Although the primary
focus will be on the State of Wisconsin as the exemplary case analysis,
the program will be augmented by presentations from people from other
liberal states including England, Australia, and Canada.

Conference papers will be published in a book edited by Professor Leonard
V. Kaplan and published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

For more information: Contact Pam Hollenhorst Associate Director, Institute
for Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin Law School, at pshollen@facstaff.wisc.edu.